Josh Moon's Just Saying: ASU episode is like a soap opera

No one will say why Silver put on leave

Dec. 2, 2012

Friday’s wrap-up episode of the Days of Alabama State Lives was filled with twists and turns, and at the end, a cliffhanger mystery. There was a special guest appearance by the governor, an unexpected death, a packed board of trustees meeting room, a hallway filled with angry, chanting students and a script so crazy a soap opera producer would reject it as too farfetched to produce.

Show open:

We gathered Friday morning for the board of trustees meeting at ASU that was expected to seal the fate of embattled ASU President Joseph Silver and end a wild week of protests, surprising press conferences and enough drama to capture the attention of a town that usually pays little attention to this university.

Silver was on leave since Monday, and the ASU campus has been turned into one big protest ever since. Students are firmly behind their new president, who has been on the job just two months, and they have again packed the hallways outside of the board room, chanting “Fire the board” and “Save Silver.”

At one point, ASU attorney Kenneth Thomas ventured into the hallway and several students shouted angrily at him. And I thought, Oh my God, they’re going to kill Kenny.

Inside the board room, things were less wild, but more confusing.

Board Chairman Elton Dean opened the meeting by calling for a moment of silence in memory of Silver’s mother, who passed away on Thursday evening. Dean announced that the board would delay action on Silver’s employment status because of the death.

That left Silver visibly angry, and later in the day, he issued a statement saying that he “expressly communicated to the board that matters regarding my personnel status not be delayed because of her death.”

Regardless, the board delayed the vote on Silver’s future, because isn’t that how it goes with every soap opera? Just when you think the storyline is about to wrap up, there’s a frustrating twist that drags it out.

There was other action in the show:

The board approved placing Silver on paid leave, approved an independent audit of all contracts and, in a true soap opera-style move, an old show regular, former president William Harris, returned to reprise his role of president.

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While all of that was certainly worthy of time and focus, it was the dialogue that took place after the board meeting, as the major players attempted to answer the obvious questions about this ordeal, that was really interesting.

First, here is the transcript of part of the conversation I had with executive vice president John Knight, who has apparently survived an attempted iPhone firing by Silver:

Me: “Dr. Silver sent an email to all faculty on Oct. 12 (not Nov. 23, as I incorrectly reported on Friday) saying there were several problems with contracts. Surely you saw that email and surely, given your position here, you asked him what he was talking about, right?”

Knight: “Yes. Several people asked him. We said, ‘We have thousands of contracts here, tell us what you’re talking about.’”

Me: “And what did he say?”

Knight: “He wouldn’t tell us. He only said, ‘You know.’”

I asked Knight if they pressed Silver after he gave that answer, and he said they did. And he also continues to swear that neither he nor any administrator at ASU is aware of questionable contracts at the university — they have no idea, they say, what Silver is talking about.

I asked Silver’s attorney, Dennis Bailey, for a response to this. Late Friday night, I got this reply: “Dr. Silver has a different recollection.”

Can I just say, while I’m sure he has his reasons, the shadowy, mysterious way Silver is playing this thing is wearing thin. You’ve got the whole town in an uproar. Spill it already.

But no matter whether we ever figure out this contract ordeal or not, there’s still one gigantic elephant in the room — one big plot hole, if you will: Why is Silver on leave?

I asked Dean. After a long pause, he said, “I’m not going to go there.”

I then asked every present member of the board — five were still there at the time — who voted 7-2 to approve the action of placing Silver on leave. No one offered an answer. No one even attempted an answer.

And then Kenny Thomas came along to provide some comic relief.

After asking why I wasn’t asking him to explain why Silver is on leave, Thomas proceeded to put me through one of the most confusing, mind-boggling conversations I’ve ever taken part in.

Thomas called the reasons behind placing the president on leave Silver’s “personal employment status.” He asked if Silver shouldn’t be offered some protections by employment law. He asked why I was so concerned with Silver’s personal job status.

When I explained that placing the president of a large, public university on administrative leave during an emergency meeting usually required some minimum form of explanation, Thomas said this: “There is a process that has to be followed. And when it is appropriate to provide you and him with that information, it will be given to you.”

If I woke up with my head sewn to the carpet, I wouldn’t have been more surprised than I was to learn that four full days after being placed on leave, no one at ASU had informed the president of the university why that action was taken.

That the words “We’re placing you on leave” weren’t followed with “because” and a minimum explanation is astounding.